Afternoon Tea At GŎng, Shangri-la The Shard, London

Whilst the location and view are superb, unfortunately the standard of the afternoon tea was very poor I 've had better afternoon tea in the local pub in my village. The sandwiches were very bland, and some of the cakes (in particular the lemon drizzle) were very dry. There was also no flexibility whatsoever one of the sandwiches was 'ham and piccalilli ' my husband doesn 't like piccalilli and so asked for plain ham, and he was told that the sandwiches are pre made and so this wasn 't possible! Really??? At £72 per head (or £60 without the champagne), you would expect not only a good standard of food, but also some degree of flexibility he was only asking for no pickle! Our waitress was very helpful and friendly, but clearly they are trained to just 'stick to the menu ' at all times my husband also doesn 't particularly like nuts (it 's not an allergy, he 's just not keen on them), and so asked if he could swap the chocolate hazelnut cake for something else again we were told this wasn 't possible, although he could order extra of any of the other items if he wished, which seems rather a wasteful way to do things! This was to celebrate a special wedding anniversary, and we were both very disappointed by the whole experience.

We all know that you're paying for the view but the food is nothing special.

The view is amazing and the tea and sandwiches were lovely but the cakes a bit small and it is seemed a little overpriced for what it was. The staff seemed a little bit busy so was hard at points to attract attention but all were very friendly and we did get a window seat, as requested for my fathers 75th and they did bring up a big piece of cake for him with a little birthday message on it, which he loved. So I would recommend the venue for this and the view. Thank you for making my Dad happy

Despite the fact that I’ve booked a table for three with credit card preauthorised and arrived in time, we were told by the receptionist to wait in the lobby because they don’t have our reservation and there’s no table available. After 20 minutes after reservation time we’re assigned to a temporary table with bar stools instead of normal arm chairs and they’re extremely uncomfortable. The service didn’t pay any attention to us, not sure if they lack staff or other reasons we were kept waiting another 15-20min before we actually ordered food and another 30-40min for our food to get ready, and even worse, disgustingly we’ve found hair in our food. The price of £58 pp excluding service charge is totally not worth it. Have been to Ting at the 35th floor and had almost the same view but everything else was much much better.

We opted for the champagne upgrade for our tea, and the refills kept coming! Our first course featured an array of sandwiches, and my favorites were the coronation chicken and the lobster roll. The smoked salmon was my least favorite, but only because I personally dislike smoked salmon, not because it lacked flavor. We mistakenly asked for a second plate of sandwiches, and that turned out to be a mistake because by the time the pastries arrived, we were already quite full! The desserts were delightful as well. By the time our reservation was winding down at 3 PM, the restaurant was bustling and quite loud. I'm glad we arrived early; while 1 PM isn't the traditional time for tea, it was the wise choice in this case. I highly recommend a visit! They also offer complimentary coat check.